Is a Community garden in Manitou's future?

The area in Manitou Springs known as Higginbotham Flats, a parcel of land across from the Cave of the Winds entrance along Highway 24, may soon be the site of Manitou Springs’ first community garden.

For a town that’s often been on the cutting edge of the green movement, it’s surprising that a community garden hasn’t happened before in Manitou. It’s perhaps even more surprising that the proposed garden is this particular piece of land, a site of contention between the land’s owners — Bethesda Management Company —  and residents who formed Save the Flats to prevent development in the late ’90s. Development was minimized to some storage units in the area, but was a much better alternative in residents’ eyes than the proposed gas station/convenience store slated to go there. The storage units also had a silver lining, bringing a water source to the Flats, making a community garden possible.

Dinah Mann, one of the original members of Save the Flats, is the catalyst behind the current effort to, as the group’s PowerPoint presentation states, “create a space that enriches and celebrates the community of sustainability, local food, art, wellness, beauty, and economics of Manitou.” A core group of six to eight gardeners, artists and environmentalists have been dedicated to the project, meeting with the Trails & Open Space Coalition to determine the best course of action for turning a plot of land near the storage units, now jointly owned by the city and Save the Flats and zoned for commercial use, into a community garden.

“We think we’d like to move toward park and rec. zoning,” Mann said. “It could stay commercial and we’d get a conditional use permit for it. But I think for the long term, the park and rec. zoning might be the best direction. Our next step is working with planning director Dan Folke and finding out what direction he recommends.”

The movement has many interested in the land, which should provide enough space for 15 to 20 plots that are 20’ by 20’. Artist Steve Wood from Concrete Couch has already designed fencing for the area. Brian Frisk of local environmental group Transition Town has expressed interest in creating wind breaks for the garden. Becky Elder, co-founder of Pikes Peak Permaculture and owner of Blue Planet Earthscapes, is interested in the garden as well.

“I think it’s a real positive use of the land,” she said. “The soil up there is not great. It’s all slash and backfill from the highway ... The garden will be artistic and functional, and it will get people involved. I think it’s going to be a really good project for the town.”

The area around the site has also been a popular locale for transients this year; Mann said the group had considered that fact.

“We think the increase in activity up there will help,” she said. “We’d like to even have them become stewards of the community garden in some way. We’re not sure how to do that, but I know people have done it in the past. Rather than making them feel alienated, we could make them feel part of it. It’s not necessarily a bad thing that they’re there.”

Mann said that once they have determined the right zoning for the area, their plan for the garden will go before Manitou Springs City Council. Mann said she expects this to happen sometime in December.